Costly Mission
by Chaotix Kitsune
Summary: Espio recalls the night he lost his teammate and one of his best friends, Mighty the Armadillo. ONE SHOT.


A one shot I did. Ever wondered why Mighty is no longer around? Well that's what this fic focuses on. Except it's a much sadder reason.

This is in no way meant to bash Mighty or his fans. I happen to love him. This was written with all due respect to the character.

I hope you guys like it.

* * *

He tossed and turned in his bed as he was being faced with a horrible nightmare.

"No…" he muttered.

He struggled in sleep for a while until he woke up. He shot up from his bed and gasped loudly. Sweat dripped down from his face. He panted heavily until he realized what had happened.

"Just a dream…"

But it wasn't just a dream. It was a terrible memory. He got up from his bed and left his bedroom so that he could wash the sweat from his face.

In the bathroom, he splashed his face with cold water. His boss noticed the bathroom light on and stepped in.

"Espio?" Vector said.

"Huh! Oh… Hi Vector."

"You okay? You look a little shook up."

"Yeah. I'm fine. I just had a nightmare."

"Nightmare, huh? What was it about?"

Espio gripped the sink.

"It was more like a recollection… Of something bad that happened to us… The night we lost…"

He was unable to finish his sentence. Vector knew immediately what Espio was referring to. He approached and put a hand on Espio's back.

"You wanna talk about it?"

"I just feel… so responsible for what happened. I was being careless and he paid the price for it."

"Please don't blame yourself for what happened. He wouldn't want you to. We were so overwhelmed that night. It was all just a tragic accident…"

"Hmm…"

"Well… It's a little early for us to be up. Why don't we hit-the-hey for a few more hours?"

"Well… I'll try."

The two detectives returned to their respective rooms.

The Chaotix wasn't always a trio. There were once a total of five members. The group was originally founded by Knuckles the Echidna. But because of his duties as Master Emerald guardian as well as his own preference of being a loner, he long ago abandoned his leadership role. Vector took over from that point on.

Then there was Mighty the Armadillo. Mighty had a heart of gold and was a loyal friend. For his size, he possessed amazing strength. He beat Vector every time at arm wrestling.

But one night, the Chaotix quartet went to investigate and shut down one of Dr. Eggman's bases. Little did they know, they would leave as a trio.

* * *

The night started off normally enough. The Chaotix had infiltrated the mad scientist's base and were discussing their next plan of action.

"Okay, boys. Here's the plan." Vector announced. "We need to shut down the two power generators in this base. The problem is that they need to be shut down at the exact same time. If one shuts down before the other, it could lead to a massive power overload on one end which could cause an explosion.

"KABOOM!" Charmy yelled.

"Right. Now Charmy and I will shut down the north power generator. Espio, you and Mighty will take care of the south power generator."

"Roger." said Espio.

"Sure thing, Vec." said Mighty.

"Alright. We will each shut down the power generators at exactly 10:00. That should be plenty of time for us to reach our points. Any questions?"

"Nope." Espio, Charmy, and Mighty said together.

"Let's move out!"

The group of four split into two teams and went their separate ways.

Espio and Mighty considered themselves to be friendly rivals. They would often have sparing matches with one another to help themselves train. Truthfully, Mighty was a pacifist and disliked fighting. But he needed to hone in his skills if he wanted to protect the innocent. While they had similar ambitions in life, their personalities were vastly different. Espio was far more reserved and preferred to take his work seriously. Mighty was very outgoing and always tried to see the fun in his work. Today was no different.

"So, Espio. This mission making ya nervous?"

"Hm. I don't get nervous."

"Well. I can admit that this has me shaking a little. One slip up and we could be finished."

"We just need to be cautious. We can't let our emotions get the better of us."

"Yeah you're right. Hey! Wanna race me there?"

"Try to take this seriously Mighty…"

"Afraid you're gonna lose?"

"Hmm… I could beat you with my eyes closed."

"Then prove it, Ninja Boy."

Mighty darted ahead while waving.

"Try and catch me!"

"Such a child…"

Espio soon followed suit. He didn't try very hard at first. He wanted to give the armadillo a head start.

"Ha! I'm totally beating you!"

"That's what you think…"

Espio soon picked up speed and caught up to Mighty.

"Aww… man!" Mighty said while panting.

The chameleon then reached top speed and left the armadillo in his dust.

"I thought you would have gone a little easier on me…" he said with a weak smile.

A while later, Mighty finally caught up with Espio and found him waiting outside the power generator room.

"Bout time…"

"Well ya could've waited up… Oh… So this is the power generator room."

"Yes. We must approach with caution."

The room was in almost complete darkness. Only a few lights sparked in the background. Espio and Mighty entered slowly and quietly. Once they reached the generator, Espio checked the time.

"We have just five minutes left…" he whispered. "We need to pull down this lever as soon as it's 10:00… Let's just try to be quiet until then…"

"Okay…"

As Mighty backed up, he accidentally bumped into the generator, causing a small piece of metal to fall to the steel floor. This is all it took to set off the security system. Red lights started to flash and alarms began to sound.

"Oops…" he said in embarrassment.

"Mighty…"

Things became even more dangerous when they saw red spots appear on their bodies. The spots were targets telling the gun robots in the walls where to shoot.

"Time to act now!"

"Right!"

Espio leaped into the air and threw kunai knives that pierced the robots causing them to malfunction. He was sure to carefully dodge the bullets that were being fired from the ones that haven't been damaged yet.

Mighty used a different tactic. He curled into a ball and began to smash each of the gun robots one by one. He didn't have to worry about dodging because his rock-hard shell was all the protection he needed.

They managed to destroy all of the robots in just over 30 seconds. The two dropped their guard after they felt it was safe.

"Wow… That was close…" Mighty said.

"Yes. Try not to be such a klutz next time."

As Mighty turned to Espio, his eyes widened when he noticed a red light shining on the side of the chameleon's head.

"LOOK OUT!!!"

Espio had no time to react. He only turned to look a Mighty who was jumping towards him. He shoved him to the side just as the gun went off. The bullet missed the chameleon and struck the armadillo instead.

"MIGHTY!"

Espio's eye caught where the gun had fire from. One of the robots was not damaged enough. He quickly threw a shuriken at it which sliced it in half.

His attention turned back to Mighty who was trying to sit up. His hand was covering his chest. The chameleon kneeled next to the armadillo.

"Mighty." he said with deep concern. "Are you alright…?"

Mighty removed his hand from his chest. He gazed at his hand which was now covered in blood.

"I-I don't think so…"

Mighty felt his body become weaker. He couldn't sit up anymore and collapsed into Espio's arms. He watched as the armadillo's skin began to turn pale.

"You saved my life…"

Mighty smiled weakly but then began to cough up some blood. The bullet had struck his heart. He wouldn't hold up for much longer.

"No…" Espio whispered as his eyes glistened with tears. "It can't end like this.... You have to pull through. Please... Don't go..."

"It's… okay… We all have to go sometime…" he said as his eyelids started to droop.

"I'm sorry Mighty… I've failed you as a partner…"

A tear fell from Espio's eye and landed on Mighty's cheek, causing him to open his eyes once more. He reached up and touched the chameleon's face.

"No you didn't… You're the greatest partner in the world… And an even greater friend… I know you would have done the same for me…"

Now the armadillo's eyes were welling with tears. His breathing was becoming unsteady by this point.

"Espio… There isn't... much time left…" he said in a desperate gasp. "You have to.... shut the generator down… It could be... catastrophic if you don't…"

"I… can't just leave you like this…"

"Please... don't think of me… Think about Vector and Charmy… They're counting on you…"

Espio looked back and forth between Mighty and the generator. He then gathered his strength and looked at Mighty once more.

"I'm going to miss you…"

"Don't worry… I'll be right here with you always." he said while pointing at Espio's heart.

The chameleon held the armadillo for a little bit longer before gently placing him on the ground.

"Tell Vector and Charmy I said… goodbye…"

Espio nodded while trying to choke back his tears. He turned his attention back to the generator. There were only 30 seconds remaining.

On the other end, Vector and Charmy were all ready to flip the switch.

"Only 10 seconds remaining…" Vector said. "I sure hope Espio and Mighty got there in time…"

Espio counted down the last few seconds.

"3… 2… 1."

He pulled on the lever with all his strength. It made a "ker-clunk" sound when it went all the way down. Espio braced himself in case anything happened. All he heard was the sound of the engine shutting down. Everything seemed to be okay.

Back with Vector and Charmy, they had the same experience.

"Yeah! We did it!" Charmy celebrated.

"Heh, we all did it! Let's go find Espio and Mighty."

Espio jumped down from the generator and immediately rushed back to Mighty. He froze as he stared at his lifeless body. The armadillo had clearly passed on. His eyes were still half open. They were dull and had no life in them whatsoever. The chameleon knelt down and gently held him.

"We did it, Mighty… We can go home now…"

Espio gently closed Mighty's eyes with his hand before picking him up off the ground and carrying him out of the room.

Meanwhile, Vector had taken out a flashlight to light the dark path. Now that the main generators were shut off, there was very little light in the base. Charmy never liked the dark so he made sure to stick close to Vector.

"Kinda spooky in here, isn't it?" the bee said.

"We'll get outta here soon. Don't worry."

Just then, Vector's flashlight caught something. He recognized the form as Espio. The chameleon appeared to be carrying something.

"There's Espio now." said Vector. "Yo, Espio!"

Espio continued to walk slowly towards them. Vector and Charmy continued towards him. Vector stopped in his tracks when he noticed that the thing Espio was carrying was actually Mighty.

"Might…?" was the only thing that came out of Vector's mouth.

"What happened…?" Charmy asked innocently. "Is he okay...?"

Espio looked at his teammates with a mournful face. He then lowered his head when he felt the tears in his eyes come back. Vector covered his mouth to mute a gasp.

"I'm sorry…" Espio cried. "It's all my fault… He... took a bullet for me..."

Now Charmy had begun to cry.

"Mighty is… dead…" he wailed.

Vector put his arm around Charmy and held him close. Espio had already sunk to the floor with Mighty still in his arms. Vector knelt down as well to have a better look at his fallen friend. The crocodile moved his free hand to the armadillo's forehead. He felt ice cold.

"You… were a great friend… Mighty… And you'll forever be a member of this team… Your nobility won't be forgotten... "

Vector rarely ever cried. But there was no way he could stop himself from doing it this time. He shut his eyes tightly causing the tears to creep out and role down his cheeks.

"Before he passed…" Espio mumbled out. "he asked me to tell you both... he said 'goodbye'..."

"Goodbye Mighty…" Charmy bravely said.

"Goodbye… Miss ya already…" Vector said.

The now trio of Chaotix sat around their fallen teammate and mourned their loss.

* * *

Espio got up early in the morning just a little bit after daybreak. He went the corner market and picked up a bouquet of flowers. The chameleon then headed across town to the local cemetery.

He walked up the long cement path that led into the grave yard. It wasn't long before he spotted where he wanted the go. Espio approached the bronze plaque that stuck up from the ground. On it was a laminated photo of Mighty.

"Hey there old friend." Espio said. "I felt it's been a while and that I should stop by."

Espio laid the bouquet near the plaque.

"Those are for you. I remembered that they were your favorite."

He put his hands behind his back and looked up at the sky, trying to think of what else to say.

"Charmy and Vector are doing well. Charmy's going to turn seven next week. He's growing up so fast."

The chameleon circled the grave for a bit, and then sat next to it.

"We all miss you very much. Things haven't been the same since you left, but were trying to manage."

He looked at the sky again.

"As for me… I'm trying hard not to be an arrogant jerk like I was to you… I'd like to be a little more appreciative with what have… If I've learned anything from this ordeal, it's to not belittle my friends so much. Because… you never know how grateful you are to have them, until you lose them… I'm still trying to get over the fact that the last thing I did before you were shot was call you a klutz…"

Espio turned to look at the grave again.

"Thank you so much… For what you did for me that night… At first I often wondered why it couldn't have been me. So I wouldn't have to go through the pain. But then I realized that you gave me a gift. The gift of life. I want to live life to the fullest for the both of us. Thank you again… My dear friend, Mighty."

Espio spent a few more minutes there, then said goodbye. He left the cemetery feeling refreshed and with a smile on his face. He placed his hand over his heart and closed his eyes. He could feel Mighty's warmth within his body. He felt this was Mighty's way of letting him know that he was there with him.

* * *

You know, I actually was close to tears while writing this... Especially the ending... I hope to hear your reviews!


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